Sparkle - A Lily and James Story
by geogmuse1
Summary: Follow Lily and James' story starting in the beginning of their 7th year of Hogwarts and moving through their adult lives.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer for all chapters in this story. I do not own any part of the story about Harry Potter. JK Rowling is the boss for creating these awesome characters, and letting us love them like we do.

Prologue

James Potter. 17 years old. Tall. Lanky. Shaggy black hair. Has swagger and confidence, more than most people would like or appreciate, but was overshadowed by his best friend Sirius Black. Ah, Sirius Black has all of that with a bad attitude about life, due to his pure blood parents and their well-behaved second son. Sirius egregiously flaunted all of the things his parents didn't like about him. This was James Potter's best friend, confidant, and co-founder of the Marauders. Them along with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew made the ultimate team. Remus, the most logical of the bunch helped them devise ways of not getting caught, getting out of tight squeezes and helping them brainstorm new and different ways of pulling off pranks, and Peter, being the innocent and completely sweet and naive roommate of the bunch, was the one to make others look the other way while they were devising their schemes. They knew that he was not the brightest of the group, but who can match the pure magnetism of James and Sirius. If anything, Peter brought out their compassionate side, and everyone saw that he was accepted into their group, and thus made the four of them the most popular boys in the whole school. James Potter had an upbringing unlike so many other students. His parents are much older than most everyone else's, and he was a lucky surprise to Tiberius and Emmira Potter. Tiberius and Emmira taught James everything that they knew when he was growing up. Everything about the wizarding world. Emmira was an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry, and Tiberius was a retired Auror, and very good friends with Albus Dumbledore. Magic came very naturally to James, as did his hunger for learning.

James Potter also had one and only one love. Lily Evans. 17 years old. Enchanting green eyes. Brilliant red hair. They had known each other for 6 years already, and James was enthralled by her beauty, charm, wit, and charisma the first day that they met. She was nice to everyone. Accepted them for who they were. Didn't blink twice when they screwed up, but just accepted the flaw, and helped them to correct and did it with compassion. There were very few on her list titled unmanageable because she just didn't know how to deal with them or help them. The Marauders were the ultimate antithesis to her well-being. They made no sense and everything that they did was completely illogical and immature. She did not know how to help them, or guide them to be better people. She honestly didn't know how they could be in Gryffindor with her when they were complete pinhead, and their egos completely enveloped everyone within a 50 foot radius.

Now James and Lily did not always think of each other like this. They were actually friends when they first entered Hogwarts together. They sat near each other in classes, helped each other with homework, and practicing the day's lessons together in the common room. Lily was very fresh and naive to the wizarding world, and she only had her best friend Severus' view on everything involving magic. When they first entered into Hogwarts, Lily and Severus came over on the boats together. Severus was telling her everything he knew about Hogwarts. The different houses, the various subjects they were going to be learning, and how much different it was going to be than living in Spinners End. Severus was the only person she knew, and she wanted to be around the familiar in an unfamiliar world.

The years grew on, and as Lily became more aware of the various social classes of the wizarding world, she realized that she was not among the most respected according to Severus. This spiked her determination to work harder, and try to be the best. James Potter became closer to his group of friends, his ego and charm getting to the best of him, and Lily was left behind to study with Severus in the Library, becoming more and more irritated with how James Potter, the lovely charming boy was being influenced by is no good best friend Sirius Black. Severus had told her about the Blacks, and how they were all pure blood maniacs, and the fact that Sirius had gone to Gryffindor was basically a dishonor to their family name. Blood status was the most important quality to the Black family, as it was for many of the other old wizarding families who were consistently put in Slytherin House, and Lily couldn't seem to loathe them enough for their treatment of anyone who was 'half-blood' or less. This was one of the reasons in which she started disliking the marauders.

As soon as Severus started spouting off about blood status later on, and how his mother had the same views as the Blacks, then, she started to see the other side of Severus. She started noticing how he was hanging out with the more eccentric Slytherins wanting to be part of the Death Eaters, and she was begging him to cease his friendship with him. Severus was torn, due to his admiration for Lily, and his loyalty for his house. Being in the balance was excruciating for him, but his house was forcing him to decide in terms no less threatening than what the Slytherins were threatening all of the muggleborns.

As it was, Lily's trust and friendship with Severus was shaky throughout their 5th year. Conversations were getting tense and less animated than when they first arrived, and attitude that they each showed each other was even more so. The fact that they were turning 16, and their hormones were overly sensitized didn't help either. The incident after OWLS was a tipping point for her. Many of her friends within her house, and well as others always questioned the friendship, and now she was starting to see the truth about it.

Their 6th year was unpalatable. Lily just could not stand any of the boys she was friends with from her first year of Hogwarts. They were all being immature, completely out of line, and disrespectful to everyone around her. Severus taunted James, and James threw it back in his face. Sirius taunted all the other Slytherins, and ended up dueling in the corridors no less than 1 or 2 times a week, and more often than not, daily. Peter, not necessarily being as excellent as a marksman as James or Sirius, just tried to keep the Head Boy and Girl as well as all of the other perfects at bay. Remus was a solace to her that year. She had her female friends, but none of them could understand why she refused the Marauders. All of the female friends she hung around with were either on the Quidditch team with James, had grown up around the Potters when they were younger, or they were besotted by his charmingly good looks. Since Remus was a fellow perfect with her, and had most of her rounds with him, he was her sounding board. He had his own problems to deal with and she was as much of a support for him as he was for her. Being the brilliant witch that she was, having found out about Remus' lycanthropy the years before, was trying to help find a cure along with all of her studies.

She immersed herself in her studies, and was trying to figure out her life after Hogwarts. It seemed so bleak, and so far off, but the news of threats and disappearances of muggles and muggleborns alike were starting to put her on edge. Threats were made towards her no less than half a dozen times every week from the Slytherins. This only fueled her flame for study. It kept her sane, and level headed about the situation. She became more concerned for her parents, muggle friends, and even Petunia, though she would never return any of Lily's letters.

James, on the other hand, had an infatuation with Lily like none of his friends had seen the previous years. He was trying to get her to notice his development, quidditch skills, and trying to get better marks than her in all of their classes to show how good of a student he was. Unfortunately the picture he had in his mind of what Lily was thinking about all of these accomplishments were a far cry from what Lily actually thought about his actions. She more or less thought of them as antics. Sirius was not helping him win her over either. Almost as soon as Lily might have been impressed with something, Sirius was there moments later destroying most, if not all, of James' credibility. James was starting to become more responsible with his studies, and after taking on the captaincy of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, managing his time was almost necessary.

After becoming fully fledged animagi the previous year, their jaunts with Remus every month were getting more ambitious. This was mostly of Sirius' persuasion. At the end of the year when Sirius dared Severus to join them at the Whomping Willow right before they were going to bring Remus out for their jaunt, things turned ugly, and James was there to save both his friend's and Severus' lives by sealing the werewolf in the shack with Sirius and Peter in their animagus forms, shoving Severus back into the tunnel and discouraging Severus to pursue the werewolf, and urged him go to Lily instead, since Lily was the current perfect performing rounds.

When Severus found Lily that evening to retell the misdeeds of the Marauders, Severus was weaving the tale so it would put him in good light with Lily, but Lily, knowing the Marauders, would not put it past them to goad Severus into a situation of this magnitude. The tale completely backfired on Severus, and Lily instead took the Marauders' side on the matter, and blamed Sirius for the misleading information that was fed to Severus. She also knew of Severus' insatiable curiosity, so was not at all surprised that he fell for a ploy that Sirius had set up. Lily insisted Severus take this up with Dumbledore, as she didn't think her authority as a Perfect was enough for the situation, nor did she feel comfortable docking points for a situation that Severus could have made up himself.

After this night, Severus now knew where Remus was going every month and why, and brought up the news with Dumbledore at Lily's insistence. Severus wanted Remus removed from school and banished from coming back. Dumbledore said he would never not allow a witch or wizard to learn if they wanted it, and stated that the punishments he were suggesting were too severe for the situation as it was not wholly Remus' fault, as he could help himself when he turned into a werewolf every month, and he would not be banishing Remus from the school.

Dumbledore explained to Severus the security parameters that were put in place when Remus first arrived, how Severus decided to go against the safety cautions put in place and how when Severus passed the safety net, it was now his fault if he were ever harmed. Dumbledore also reminded Severus to refer to his Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons about werewolves to remind him of Remus' capabilities as well as his mental limitations while transformed.

Severus then moved on the idea that Remus have is Perfect badge be taken away due to the fact he felt a werewolf as a Perfect was a liability to the school's safety and well-being. Dumbledore was unable to argue the fact and then requested that the only way he would take away Remus' Perfect badge would be to insist that no one else in the school find out about Remus' lycanthropy unless Remus himself gave permission for the information to be public.

Within a fortnight, Dumbledore asked Remus and James into his office, a week before classes ended, to talk about the altercation, and asked for their opinions of the events that unfolded during the previous full moon, Severus' deal, and what he thought should happen. Remus reluctantly gave up his Perfects badge, and was wondering why it hadn't happened sooner, and after much prodding and questioning James graciously accepted the duties that Remus would no longer be able to perform.  
Being as it was the end of the year and exams were upon all the students, it was the time of year were the Heads and Perfects were relieved of hall duties and any other time consuming duties that could otherwise be performed by the Professors, so that they could study for the upcoming end of year exams. Summer break was now upon all of the students, and James was unable to attend any meetings as a Perfect, as their last one was the night before the May Full Moon and Severus' fateful encounter.

Alas, summer break was a trying time before James and Lily's 7th year for the Wizarding community, as threats of Voldemort's followers were looming, and the threats were starting to become more noticable. The Order of the Phoenix was in full swing underground, and people were disappearing daily. Students could not wait to get back into the confines of Hogwarts, and under the safety of their ever powerful Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.


	2. Chapter 1

1st chapter - Sept 1976 Start of 7th year

As soon as Lily stepped onto Platform-Nine-and-Three-Quarters, she knew that things were going to be a little less chaotic than they were at home. Petunia just got herself engaged a giant lump of a man, who could not be reasoned about anything out of the ordinary. Mum was in a manic state, and worried about everything that had to do with the wedding, even though it wasn't going to be until next summer that they were getting married. Mum insisted that Lily be home for the wedding, but Petunia wouldn't allow her to actually be in the wedding. She was too excited to get away from all of that. Her parents even tried to include Lily's getting head girl into Petunia's engagement dinner, but Petunia would have none of it. Instead Lily just got a note to go buy herself her own congratulatory gift. She decided to get a cat from Diagon Alley and named it Tigger. Alice and Frank Longbottom, the previous head boy and fellow Gryffindor and one of last year's 7th year Ravenclaw perfects were married and Lily was invited to their wedding. It was the only bright spot that happened to her all summer.

This year her parents just dropped her, her school items, and her new cat off at the front entrance, much to Lily's dismay. They didn't even go in. Petunia was apparently already late for a bridal dress appointment. So she made her parents just drop Lily off 30 mins before the train even departed. At least she had time to check out who all was coming back, and who she would have to look out for now that she was Head Girl.

The day that she got her badge in the mail was the same day Petunia got engaged, and Petunia was not thrilled that Lily once again had dulled her parents enthusiasm for her with Lily's academic achievement. Needless to say the tension between the two sisters was growing more unsteady as the days progressed.

Once she stepped onto the train and stowed her luggage on the train, she roamed to the front of the train to the lounge to have the first meeting with Dumbledore before the train departed, and to also find out who was Head Boy. Once she got to the car more students were starting to file onto the platform, and making their way to the train. Already it seemed like there were fewer people attending this year than the last few. She saw her friends Marlene McKinnon and Amelia Bones, along with her cousin Edgar Bones, but it already felt like there were fewer people than normal as she made her way to the Head car.

Not 5 minutes later after Lily arrived at the car did Dumbledore showed up and greet her with his usual cheerful self. They sat and chatted about her summer holiday, and very soon Dumbledore was giving her advice on how to go about talking to Petunia about her wedding, and the role that Lily would have liked to play, Maid of Honor.

Suddenly the door swung open, and James Potter stepped through the threshold of the lounge and glanced at Dumbledore, then Lily, gaped, and then back at Dumbledore.

"Am I too late? Has the meeting already started?"

Dumbledore not remotely phased by James' appearance replied, "No, James. You are right on time. Although if you had been 5 more seconds, then you may have been late. Next time try to not let Sirius hold you up. James have a seat next to Lily."

Lily was staring at James in confusion as he sat down, and then back at Dumbledore waiting for an explanation.  
Dumbledore noticed Lily's bewildered gaze turned to her and replied, "Lily, I do not have enough time right now to explain what I think you have questions about, but yes, James Potter will be working with you this year as Head Boy, no, I am not a nutter, and yes James was the best option of what was available. I will go over a brief summary of duties to be done on the trip to Hogwarts, and what to address with the Perfects when they come up for their meeting once we get started. After your first set of classes before dinner tomorrow night we will have our first meeting about the school year in my office. I am quite fond of chocolate cockroaches.

"James and Lily, as Head Boy and Head Girl, you must know that your responsibilities will be greater than everyone else's at the school, especially in this heated climate. You have the most authority among the students, and I ask you not to abuse your powers. You must treat everyone justly and fair. When the Perfects come up in about a half hour, please assign times for them to patrol the train. I have always felt it is easiest by splitting up the duties into 2 hour segments between the four houses, this way the Perfects start to get to know the other Perfects in their own house. There is time later to mix up the patrolling schedule. Let the Perfects know about deducting points, why to deduct points, and emphasize to not abuse their powers like I have just said to you. I believe that is all you need to tell them at this time. I also ask that you just keep an eye out for any usual circumstances and be available for the perfect at all times on the train ride. The Perfect meetings will be held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month in the Perfects lounge across the hall from the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, under the tapestry of Hengist of Woodcroft flying around on a broomstick. James, may I suggest that this is the best time to explain to Lily why you are here. She still has a befuddled countenance. Good day. I will see you at the feast!" and with a faint pop, he was gone.

Lily muttered under her breath "I don't think I will ever get used to that" and rounded on James looking at him imploringly.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened? Why are you here? Why did Dumbledore choose you?" asked Lily.

"Well." Said James. "It's kind of a long story."

"There's no time like the present. If I am going to have any respect for you as Head Boy, I need to know why and how you got the Head Boyship. I thought only Perfects were able to get it? Where's Remus? He should be here instead of you."

"You're right Evans. Remus should be here instead of me. I will be the first to admit I really don't know what is going on. I got some pointers from Remus at the end of last year when he was forced to resign his Perfects badge, but I have never actually attended a meeting."

"Ok. But you have not answered how you got the Perfects Badge and why Remus had to resign."

"So, did Severus ever come to you at the end of last year and tell you a wild story about Remus, Sirius and I hanging around the Whomping Willow around the full-moon?"

"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything."

"Oh." Lily suddenly had a great affinity to look at her shoelaces. "I remember Severus coming up to me that night with this outrageous tale about a werewolf, and how you and Sirius were trying to get him to goad it, or something like that. I don't remember all the details because I don't think Severus was telling the complete truth."

"Yea, that was the night."

Lily looked up at James, "I also remember telling him when he confronted me about it, that I was not the correct person to go to about punishment. I felt like I didn't have enough power as a perfect to overrule Severus' story, or completely believe it, so I told him to take it to Dumbledore."

"Well, he did." James got up and started pacing the room. "He asked that Remus be expelled from Hogwarts, have his Perfects badge taken away, and not allowed back on the premises of Hogwarts again. I believe he even questioned why Dumbledore allowed Remus to even be a Perfect."

"But Remus was so good at being a Perfect! The fact that he is a werewolf shouldn't matter even in the slightest."

"I completely agree. This was Dumbledore's logic as well, but Severus wanted someone to be punished or else he was going to tell the whole school about Remus' 'furry little problem'."

Lily started to giggle.

"Whats so funny?!"

"Furry little problem. What an elegant way to put his lycanthropy. Still, though, Severus shouldn't have threatened Remus."

"So you know about Remus then."

"Yea, I figured it out third year. Severus was always asking questions about him, and as much as I wanted to believe that he was sick or always visiting his mum, I just couldn't hold it off forever.

"Severus started doing research about monthly cycles of various wizarding world creatures, and when he figured out that it was always on the full moon that Remus was disappearing, then I couldn't hold off my doubts any longer. I confronted Remus about it, and promised him that I wouldn't say anything about it. I kept denying it to Severus, and eventually he stopped hounding me about it. I also started telling and supporting the lies that Remus would give to anyone else who asked about it.

"Fifth year came along and when I found out he was a perfect with me, I was even more determined to help him out. I gave excuses about random things when our patrol came up on or near the full-moon and had our times switched with another set of Perfects."

"Huh. Imagine that. Perfect Lily Evans lying to the Head Boy and Girl trying to get out of patrol duty."

"Honestly James. Patrol duty isn't all that it's cracked up to be."

"Maybe you aren't doing it properly."

"How would you know if I'm doing it properly. You've never been on patrol!"

"Well, we shall see about that. I intend to change your views on patrol by the end of the year. Just you wait and see. You'll like it once we are through, and you will be begging me to put you on patrol all the time." James gave her a very toothy grin. Lily rolled her eyes back at him, "Oh James, you really have no idea what you are talking about do you."

"So, back to the night that Remus got his badge taken away, how did you get it?" Lily asked again.

"So," James said with a sigh,"I went up to Dumbledore's office with Remus when Dumbledore gave us the news. He had summoned both of us together a week after the incident. Dumbledore's logic was that since Remus couldn't take the Gryffindor Perfects badge, and he knew that Sirius would just tarnish the Perfect's honor of upholding the rules of the school, the only other two options were Peter and myself. "

"Peter can be a coward any day of the week."

"Very true. He's also a little afraid of the dark."

"I didn't know that. I don't think I would have put up with that if I had gone patrol with him."

"Also one of Dumbledore's other points. Which left me. I'm sure if there were other boys in our grade level in Gryffindor, then they would have gotten the pick over me, but alas, I was the last option, and I accepted it whole-heartedly. When I told my parents this past summer they celebrated and told me that I'm 'turning over a new leaf'. Also, I'm glad that I got it. Don't want all of those nasty Slytherins clobbering up the new Head Girl now do we."

"As much as I hate to admit it, you are rather good at dueling, even if it is against school policy, and I don't think Jerry Rawlins of Hufflepuff, and Thomas Kline of Ravenclaw would have stood up to the challenge. They're probably also going to be too busy with their new girlfriend or studying to make any impact."

"Speaking of them, looks like they are headed this way now. I didn't even realize that the train has started moving yet."  
With that the door to the compartment opened, and the Perfects from each of the houses all started to trickle in for the first Perfect meeting of the year. James got many questionable looks from the guys, and a few flirtatious glances from some of the new 5th year girls.

Lily started the meeting, went over Dumbledore's notes, and James added in a few that she had left out, taking everything in stride. The meeting was dismissed and everyone filed out back to their own friends.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful, except when Lily had to go find James to break up a fight between Sirius and his brother.

The Great Hall that evening was all aglow with candlelight, but did little to offset the looming clouds that were lingering above threatening rain. The chatter was excited from the first years, but more muted among everyone else. Some of the normal random faces were missing from the crowd. Families that had been affected by Voldemort and his followers were no longer at the school, making the impending war even more eminent.

Lily and James were seated across from each other at the table with a couple of the Gryffindor Perfects close by to welcome the new students who were sorted into their house. The rest of the Marauder were close at hand, with Remus sitting next to Lily and Sirius next to James, who was grumbling about being too close to the Professors. Marlene McKinnon and Amelia Bones were on the other side of Lily.

Lily, noticing the absence of some of the students asked James, "Is it really as bad as the papers say about the disappearances?"

James replied, "If anything its worse. I don't think the papers publish everything about whats going on. I think they are trying to not panic everyone about Voldemort."

Peter twitched next to Sirius, "James can we please not say his name? I've heard there's been a taboo put on it. I don't want to provoke him coming to Hogwarts."

"Sure Pete. I can try. But you know, fear of a name only means fear of the thing itself."

"Duly noted." Pete turned his attention back to the sorting.

Lily watched 7 new Gryffindors get sorted, and once she saw that they were settled down for the feast, she attended her own plate for food.

Professor Slughorn ambled up to Lily half way through the meal to congratulate her on her head girlship.

"congratulations Lily, my dear! I'm so pleased that you were nominated for Head Girl. I told Professor Dumbledore last year that I thought you were the most suited for the job."

"Thanks Professor." Lily smiled back to him.

"Also, look for my owl in the next few weeks, as I plan to resume our jovial Slug Club meetings. I do hope you will attend."

"Wouldn't miss it Professor." Lily smiled and said in response.

The professor then turned and walked down the table to other students and greeted in the same manner.

Once out of earshot James piped up, "Glad I don't have to attend those meetings. I'm afraid I would be bored out of my mind."

Lily just gave him a sideways smirk and resumed her meal. "You never know until you go to one and see what they're all about"

Marlene piped up next to Lily, "Honestly James, they're not all they are cracked up to be."

The rest of the feast both Lily and James answered questions from the eager 1st years, and didn't have time for conversation elsewhere. Once the feast was over, and the Perfects lead all of the new students to their dormitories, James and Lily lagged behind to make sure the rest went up to bed, and they themselves followed close behind.

The next morning at breakfast when their new class schedules arrived James looked at his and noticed that Lily had all but one class together. Pete only had 3 classes with him and Lily and Remus and Sirius each had 5 classes with James. The extra class that Lily did not share with James, both Remus and Peter were taking along with Marlene and Amelia. As it was their final year and all of the classes were mixed in with all of the other houses.

Lily could tell within the first two classes that this was not going to fare well for her. The Slytherins were being worse than ever to her due to her blood status and head girlship combination. There were no more than 5 different threats that were being slung her way on that first day, and it was trying her resolve. She almost felt fortunate that there was at least one other Gryffindor boy in each of her classes, so that the threats were not as impending if she were on her own. Besides Marlene and Amelia, the girls in her year were great girls, but they were much more into all of the current trends, and begged here to join them, so that they could give her a make over or re-style her hair. She adored these girls to pieces, but they were no comparison to the guys of their year. The girls resolves were much less overt and they seemed to cower and any sort of wand work that didn't involve beautifying oneself. This was why Lily was glad the boys were in her classes, even though she wouldn't admit it to them. Their egos were still a little bit too smug for her tastes.

Once all of the classes were finished for the day, and Sirius had gotten out at least 5 different complaints about all of the homework that was already given, James was coming down the stairs, ignored him and finally found Lily in the common room sitting with Marlene, and asked if she was ready to go to their first Head Boy/Girl meeting with Dumbledore. They started out of the portrait hole and on their way to Dumbledore's Office when Lily asked,

"James, whats going on between you and Sirius?"

"What do you mean whats going on? Everything's fine between us."

"No it isn't. I can tell. You guys aren't caterwauling around anymore."

"What you mean all the jokes and stuff?"

"Not just the jokes, but your casualness with him seems strained."

"I don't understand your point Lily."

"Up through last year you two were inseparable, and giggling like two 10 year old girls gossiping in the corridor all the time. Plotting revenge on something or other or always besting one another. So far this year not one peep about jokes or tricks or anything between you two. What's the reason?"

"I don't know Lily, we all change at some point. I'm not really sure why you're so worried anyways."

"I guess I just want to be prepared if there are going to be any pranks or anything like that played on me. I just want to be alert so that you guys don't get out of hand."

"Lily, you really think we would get out of hand with all of the history that we've had with pranks?"

"There is a slight chance. Sometimes Sirius' ideas aren't always the best."

"This I know Lily." James said somberly. "This I know."

"Chocolate Cockroaches."

And with this they had reached the staircase to the Headmaster's office, in while Professor Dumbledore was waiting for both of them to enter.

"Right on time you two, I'm so glad that you both were able to make it!"

"Professor, its only been the first day of classes. Not too much could have gone wrong already."

"I know James, but you'd be surprised. I remember one year we had to send the Head Girl to St Mungos because one of the other students got overly zealous when it came time for human transfigurations, her transfiguration partner was a little love sick over her, and her arms had turned into lacewing fly wings, while her torso had that of a rat. Not really sure how it happened, but it did, and in my classroom too. Tsk Tsk. Oh, I was so relieved when she turned out to be ok, and were able to return not a week later when they finally got the potion to remove the wings from her back. It took five days to brew when they finally figured out what she needed. Unfortunately for the lad, she didn't really talk to him again."

Lily just gaped at him, looked over at James and started eying him suspiciously.

"James I hope you don't get any ideas."

"Have a heart Lily, I'm much better at transfiguration than that and would never get confused with my spellwork. If I were to turn you into anything it would probably be a cat so when we're done with our studies we can cuddle up together so I can pet you."

"You can always dream James, but I doubt that would happen even if I were human."

"Now now children," Dumbeldore said with a little sparkle in his eye, "We need to get started on our meeting."

With that they settled into the meeting and Dumbledore talked about how often each house needs to patrol, when the teachers patrol, and how often they themselves would need to patrol. Among their duties they had to be available for a study hour at least once a week for the younger students, so that if they had any questions outside of class, they could be there for them. If no students showed up then they could study on their own, but they had to be in the library for their study time. They were in charge of handing out any notices of Hogsmeade trips or changes to the schools to all of the perfects, and they were also in charge of scheduling any quidditch matches, as well at coordinating with the house elves on special holiday feasts.

Once the formal duties were concluded and James and Lily stood up to leave, Dumbledore called them back for one more duty that he would like them to keep an eye on, "I realize that Voldemort and his Death Eaters are getting stronger every day, and that he is recruiting straight from our very own Hogwarts students. I want to you be extra diplomatic in your approach to the Slytherin or any other students that may want to join his ranks. I am not asking you to not use spells, but given the current climate, passive to assertive spell-use will be allowed when the situation is dire. Please find a professor, or call out to someone to find one if you feel like you do not have the situation under control. I do not expect you two to fight everything yourselves, but you must realized when you may not be able to win and accept help when necessary. I have asked the teachers to keep more of a cautionary eye out during passing periods so that these things will be less likely to happen, but I feel that sometimes I am much too optimistic in my approach, and things will get out of control. Have a good night and sleep tight!"

The walk from Dumbledore's office was quiet. Much too quiet for either Lily or James' taste. Once they stepped inside of the common room, and saw Remus looking over a rumpled piece of parchment, James breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thanks Remus. I'm glad you were checking out for us."

"No problem. It's what friends are for. It looked like you had a tail for a while, but they left after you got to the fifth floor. Looked like one of the Slytherins, maybe a 4th year, but I didn't recognize the name." James sigh, and said, "Lets get to bed. We have another day of classes and homework ahead of us. Night Lily."

Lily just glanced between the two and the rumpled sheet of paper, completely baffled by what they were talking about, and headed for the girl's staircase to get ready for bed.

Classes for the next month went off as they usually did. Teachers piled homework on all of their students, and the Quidditch teams were chosen. James being the Gryffindor Captain as well as Head Boy, was more strained than he thought he was going to be. He took things in stride as best as he could, but there was only so much time in the day. It seemed as if the teachers just wouldn't let up. There were numerous times that he begged off the hour study sessions for the younger students, and asked Lily to cover for him time and time again. Each and every time he said he would make it up to her. Most of the time, he got his Head Boy duties done by sending Lily notes in class of possible solutions that she could take to Dumbledore by herself, so that she would have to think of everything on her own.

Lily was appreciative of the suggestions by note, and understood the fact that James was so busy with everything else he had going on, but there were times where she wish she could just sit down face to face with him so that her notebooks weren't a cluttered mess with his notes taped all over the place.

Lily cornered him in the common room one evening, where he was studying with the other Marauders.

"So James, what are you working on." With this James glanced up, and was startled that anyone was near. Sirius was in the background, trying to snatch the papers they were looking at to get the away from Lily's view.

"Oh nothing much, just some Defence Against the Dark Arts practicing, nothing too serious."

"So you wouldn't mind if you would like to go for a walk while we talk about our Head Duties."

"Oh, I can't right now. I'm working on this assignment, and then I have that Potions essay that Slughorn gave us, along with some practice I promised Peter for transfiguration."

Peter enthusiastically nodded his head to confirm James' impending schedule.

"Oh, well then, why don't we just sit here on the couch for 5 minutes and just discuss whats going on. I'm sure you can take 5 minutes out of your schedule to join me. Please James, I'm having a hard time keeping up with these duties by myself. I've got as much work as you do, but I've been spending twice as much time as you doing all of the head duties. You showed up an hour into the rounds, and begged off 15 mins early, so that you can catch up on your beauty sleep."

"Well I really am sorry about all of that, I truly am, but we're in the middle of something, and we can't let it go right now."

"James, all I ask is for 5 minutes. I even have a list written out over the topics we need to discuss before the next Perfect meeting on Wednesday this week."

"Oh, is that this week? Has it already been two weeks since the last meeting? I hadn't even realized." Lily just turned and glared at him.

"You need to get your priorities in order or else I will be on your case more often about them. May I suggest keeping a calendar?"

"Lily, you're starting to sound like McGonagall."

"And like an old married couple." Sirius chimed in.

Lily in turn redirected her glare to Sirius, and then continued her conversation with James. "Well, if that's what it takes to get through your thick skull, then yes that is what I suggest. Five minutes. That's all that I ask, and then you can go back to planning your prank."  
Sirius' eyes bugged out and said, "Who said anything about a prank."

"Sirius, its written all over all of your faces. I promise that if you guys let me have James for 5 minutes to discuss Head duties, and you promise that the prank won't be very dangerous, then I will promise you that I won't turn you in and deduct house points."

Each of the Marauders gave one another a look and figured it was a fair trade, and pushed James out of his chair at their table to go talk to Lily.

Lily lead them over a couple of chairs that were near the fireplace, and grabbed her quill and parchment along the way.

"Ok. First things first. We still need to talk to Dumbledore about setting the Qudditch matches so this is what I got from your notes in class: Gryffindor plays Hufflepuff at the end of October, and Slytherin vs Ravenclaw a week after that, and then the end of January, Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor with the Hufflepuff vs Slytherin game the following week, and finally the Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff game the first week in April, before Easter Holiday, with the Gryffindor vs Slytherin game the weekend after Easter Holiday. Does that sound about right?"

"Yes that's good. You may want to change the last game to a week later though. That first week after Easter Holiday can be a little rough."

"Ok. That's one thing settled." She scratched out the date and put a new one it. "Next. Patrolling. I've already done the schedule for this month, but James I'm going to ask that you do it for next month. I know you don't have any experience in making the schedule, and you really don't know the other perfects all that well yet, but you need to try to make an effort with that. We can sit down sometime and I can help you along with the schedule, and after we can make it together, but in all honesty James, I can't do all of this on my own with school work. I'm going to need a little more effort on your part."

"Ok Lily. I will try to make an effort with it for next month. Do you think you could give me a copy of your schedule and any notes that you have on making them for the next time so I'm better prepared? I will try to do it, but I doubt I'll be as good as you are at it."

Lily eyed him wearily, and said, "Just don't make a habit of it. Let me know when you want to set up a time to go over making the schedule. Also, James, do you know of any notices that need to go up in the common rooms that are coming up? Hogsmeade trips? Quidditch trials, and matches and the general rules of the school?"

"Oh yeah, Hogsmeade. I think it should be the weekend after the first Quidditch match. We didn't think about Hogsmeade soon enough to plan it before the match, so that sounds like our best option, that way all Gryffindors and Hufflepuff teams can enjoy the weekend. I think we should tell the perfects first on Wednesday, and then put the notices up on Thursday morning. Hopefully the Quidditch captains have already started putting together their rosters for the teams. I know I have. So just Hogsmeade and Quidditch Matches then for the notice Thursday morning." Lily wrote down another note on her parchment and then looked up. "This is going quicker than I thought." James said perking up a little bit.

"Next. James, I would also like your help more with the younger students and the study time in the library. I know you like to work in the common room with your friends, but you need to be more available to the younger students. They will suffer if you are not there to help support them. There were quite a handful that came to the Library this week, and it would have gone a lot smoother if you were there to help me out. You need to start thinking of your other classmates before yourself, or else your honor and respectability may be discredited."

James excitement faded and started to look a little downcast with this and replied, "I promised to make it up to you, and I don't back out on my promises. I'm still getting used to all of the responsibilities that Head Boy does. I didn't realize it was so many. I promise that once Quidditch trials get over this week it will settle down a bit, and I will be helping you out so much more. I did break up 3 fights this week from the Slytherins with nothing more than a shield charm, and I stopped at least two groups who tried to follow you this week."

"That's nice of you James, but you need to look out for the younger ones too, and not just me. I can take care of myself just as well as you can, but its the younger ones that are more vulnerable."

"I will work on it." James looked down on Lily's notes and read the last note out loud, "Holiday Feasts. Ooo. I can take care of that one. At least for Halloween. I have an excellent idea to give to the House Elves. That'll be part of my repayment for neglecting my time with the younger students. I know I won't be off the hook until the feast happens, and I will promise to help out more next week, but can this suffice for now?"

"Sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Well some of it will be a surprise, but I'm more than willing to accept suggestions."

"Well, its always nice to have some muggle sweets, like candy bars, and smarties, and the like, it reminds me of trick or treating when I was young, and how about worms in dirt!"

James stared at her blankly.

"You know! You put jelly worms in a chocolate pudding filled bowl, and sprinkle crumbled chocolate cookies over the top! Maybe have a plant growing out of it for good measure." Lily was getting giddier by the moment. "Of course, the plant should probably not be poisonous or anything like that. We don't want everyone getting sick off of it, or worse, dying."

James could help but smile at her enthusiasm. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but lets go with it. That can be your contribution when we visit the house elves."

"But James, I don't even know where the kitchens are."

"No worries, I can show you were they are." James said, still grinning like a fool.

"James why are you smiling at me like that when you don't even know what I'm talking about."

James got up and left to go sit back with the Marauders, when he turned around and smiled back at her,

"Because Lily, you sparkle when you smile."

This is the end of the 1st Chapter. I hope you like it! This is kinda how I hope to do all of the chapters. One for each month of their 7th year and the major months that something important happens in their lives afterwards. Comments are welcome, but I'm not going to beg you to write any. I enjoy reading fanfiction and stories, solely based on the fact that I can get lost in someone else's mind for a while. Critiquing just takes away some of the involvement of the story. ~Geogmuse


	3. Chapter 2

2nd Chapter - Oct 1976 Halloween

With Lily's help James eventually became more comfortable with Head duties. He liked being around Lily, and found her witty-ness enjoyable. Lily understood that James was tied up with classes, quidditch, and head duties, so wasn't too hard on him to start with. Then everything started to get in a rhythm for James. Classes, Quidditch, Classes, Head Boy duties, classes, sleep. He wasn't sure if he was going to keel over anytime soon, but found himself headed to Madam Pomfrey for some pepper-up potion more often than he would like because things were starting to become a blur.

The Marauders were not please with James being absent so often, he almost didn't make it out in time on the full moon to help out with Remus, because he was in the library studying with Lily and the first years. They also didn't appreciate their number one prankster being away so much. The only times that he was around for them were when they were all getting ready for bed, and they were bouncing ideas off of him for their Halloween feast extravaganza. James, being completely tired and stressed out found himself giving lame ideas and poor research to things that Sirius either thought of previously or Remus rebutted the idea, saying they wouldn't be able to pull it off. Eventually they settled on fireworks and exploding jack-o-lanterns.

For James the first qudditch match was the first thing on his mind. Only playing Hufflepuff, he thought they had a good chance of winning. It was the Saturday before the weekend of Halloween, and there was already snow on the ground. The air was frozen and practice for his half new and half old team was becoming more brutal as the days went by.

The morning of the game was chilly, the coldest its been so far up in the northern part of Scotland, and the castle was already getting chilly at night. His team was anxious to get the first game out of the way, and get the match behind them.

The game actually turned out to be fairly close. Hufflepuff with their captain Jerry Rawlins actually matched up with Gryffindor well. Their chasers had good schemes, and their beaters had good form. The game was tied 70 to 70 when the seekers first saw the snitch. It evaded them after the beaters from both teams broke up the chase. The game continued.

Finally when Gryffindor was up by 40 points with a score of 150 to 110 the seekers saw the snitch again after another 30 mins of searching. The fans and players were both getting tired and cold. The beaters aims were off, and the chase continued. After a near miss with a feint by the Gryffindor seeker, the Hufflepuff seeker wasn't able to pull up quick enough to avoid a crash and they toppled to the ground. The Gryffindor seeker finally caught the snitch 30 seconds later and the game was over.

Chaos ensued in the Gryffindor common room later that night and the party lasted into the wee hours of the morning. Lily watch the entire game and even went up to congratulate James with a big hug after the match. James was dazed the entire rest of the party and sat in awe with his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth.

During the next week after the excitement wore down Lily finally cornered James in the hallways after classes while she was on her way to a mid-week Slug Club get-together. Dressed in her school robe with a little bit nicer than average clothing than her school uniform on underneath she finally spotted James coming from the library after one of his tutoring sessions.

"James! I'm so glad I caught you, but I don't have too much time to discuss this, but have you figured out a menu for the Halloween Feast on Sunday?"

"And where is Miss Lily-flower headed at this time of night in such a rush, in something that's not her uniform?" Sounding almost a little peeved.

"I just happened to be headed to one of Slughorn's parties. Nothing too fancy, as this is just one of the discuss what happened this week kind of things."

"Ah. Why would he have it during the week?"

"Potter, sometimes even Slughorn doesn't make sense to me, but I'm headed there anyways. Besides you didn't answer my question about the feast?"

"I told you before, don't worry about it. It's all taken care of. I even figured out what that dirt thing you were talking about, but I honestly had to ask Marlene about it first."

"Ooo, James Potter, asking someone for help. How uncharacteristic."

"Yea, yea. Don't make fun. Now get going! Slughorn is going to miss his favorite student if you don't hurry it along."

Lily then hurried off to the direction of Slughorn's potion room, and when she turned around, she could have sworn she saw James slip around the corner the opposite direction of the common room.

While at the Slug Club, Lily brought up the topic that Slughorn had mentioned in class the week before, a topic about Wolfsbane. Apparently it was a type of potion designed to assist the werewolf in not as ghastly transformations, but a potion to ease the mind of the werewolf during its transformation. It was only recently discovered by Damocles, who was only a few years ahead of Lily herself. Slughorn had only mentioned it because Damocles had written him about the brew only after Slughorn had read about it months prior in his copy of Potions Print Digest.

Meanwhile James was down in the kitchens discussing with the house-elves about the upcoming feast.

When he returned he found Sirius, Remus and Peter all waiting up for him in their dormitory ready to finalize their feast extravaganza.

The Saturday Hogsmeade trip sprung up on James and Lily out of nowhere, and it was only the Friday before that Remus reminded the two of them at lunch about the upcoming trip.

"So are you two doing anything special tomorrow?"

Lily replied, "Whats tomorrow again?"

"Hogsmeade you silly. You're the one that planned it to be this weekend. I'm surprised you didn't remember."

"Oh my. That's this weekend? I completely forgot!" She turned and looked at James, "Did you remember that Hogsmeade was this weekend? I hope I'm not the only one that didn't remember. Oh there's so many things I need to buy this weekend and I forgot to take out some money from Gringotts."

James responded, "Lily what in the world do you need to get that you would need to take money out of Gringotts?"

"Well, their's the Slug Club Christmas party which is in the middle of December, and I need to get my outfit together, and I need to match make-up, and jewelry, and shoes, and I know this is all the sudden James, but do you think I could borrow your owl to send a note to Gringotts, and also do you think you would mind joining me as like a date-friend, you know, nothing serious, because we aren't dating, and we've been hanging around each other more lately, and I just don't know who else to ask. So anyways, do you think I could borrow your owl?" She said in a very hurried single breath like she was checking off a list in her head.

"Wait a minute. Back-up. What did you just say? You said everything in a rush I couldn't understand half of the things you just asked me. I don't even know if I was supposed to respond to any of it. You kinda lost me when you had to go buy a dress." James looked at her bewilderingly.

"Oh" said Lily, trying to slow the cogs down in her brain. "I have to get a dress for Slughorns Christmas party." She ticked off one of her fingers.

"Yes I understood that bit. What was the next?"

"Oh right, um, I need to get shoes and accessories to go with my dress?" She ticked off another finger.

"Yes, yes, I understand you need an outfit for Slughorn's Christmas party. Understood, you were needing me for something, and I couldn't quite make out what you wanted." James was now getting a little more aggravated that he didn't hear everything that she said.

"Oh! Right! I need to borrow your owl to get money from Gringotts for all my purchases."

"Sure. No problem. Herod sitting up in the owlery."  
At this point the other three marauders sitting on the other side of the table from James and Lily in complete bewilderment and watching the conversation like a tennis match.

" Just fetch him from up there, but only give him a chicken strip, because apparently I've been spoiling him lately and tried to give him an owl treat last week, and nipped my finger."

Lily then eyed him suspiciously and said, "Thanks for the warning, I'll keep that in mind."

Then James leaned into Lily and imploringly replied, "I thought there was one more thing you wanted to ask me but wasn't quite sure that I heard it right. Something else about Slughorns party."

James was staring at her so intently she thought he was going to burn a hole right through her brain and onto the floor behind her. The marauders sat up a little straighter on their bench waiting for Lily's next answer as she looked like she was going to curl up it a little ball from the weight of James' stare.

"I was kinda hoping that you might join me for it? You know not as dates or anything, but you know, like friends, because we've been getting along so well lately and I don't know, its the first Saturday of December, and I was originally going to see if Remus wanted to go, but its right before his furry little problem, and didn't want to put so much pressure on him right before the full moon.." She glanced over at him, and noticed that he was staring at her with is mouth slightly agape.

James stared at her then looked at Remus, who turned to James and said to him, "If you want to go I have no problem with that." And with that James looked back at Lily with a slightly mischievous look about him and said to her, "I'll think about it."

It was now Lily's turn to stare at him in disbelief as she sat up straight again, feeling udderly put off that he turned her down. Then she logically worked out that he wasn't all that fond of Slughorn's parties, and would want to miss it anyways.

"I guess I'll just have to ask Marlene or Amelia if they want to go with me then." She said more to herself than anyone sitting around her, and looked as if she was trying to add two things up that didn't go together. She turned to the other boys and asked, " So what are your plans for Hogsmeade?"

This left all of them trying to gather their thoughts quickly in the right thing to say to avoid suspicion about the feast tomorrow night.

Lily's Hogsmeade trip was as good as it could have possibly been. She got her gorgeous dress for Slughorn's party, which James just happened to be in the shop when she was trying dresses on and gave her pointers on what looked good and what didn't. But when she met up with Amelia and Marlene at the Three Broomsticks was when things turned from grand to not so grand.

Severus was in the pub sitting with Avery and McNair, with their heads hunched down and quietly murmuring about whatever they were talking about. Lily decided to give Severus one last shot at trying to convert to her side before completely giving up on him. She left Marlene and Amelia at a table and approached the Slytherin boys in her cheery mood.

"Hey Severus! How are classes going?"

"As good as can be expected. Although I don't appreciate you and your pure-blood traitors taking all the top spots in the class." Severus sneered in return.

"Severus, everyone who is the top in their class deserves to be there. They've studied and done what they've supposed to do. Everyone is treated the same in classes."

"If that's what you and your naive little mudblood brain think is happening then you better start questioning your teachers sanity. I doubt Potter and Lupin ever study that much anyways. I always see them cheating off of each other's notes."

"Severus, what a horrible thing to say! You're completely wrong. I know every single person who is in the top of my classes, and know for a fact that they don't cheat. I'm sure if you didn't spend as much time with these half-trolls then you would be up there with the best of us."  
Severus just turned up his nose at her and replied, "Don't you have head-girl duties to attend to? I've noticed that you and Potter have become extremely snug this year."

"Fine Snivellus. I can tell that this conversation is not going anywhere. If you have changed your mind on who you've decided your best friend is and not these half-trolls, let me know. Just realize that I may not be as overly anxious to speak to you again," Lily said, in near tears. She always had a spot for her childhood friend, but finally decided that he wasn't worth the effort anymore.

James and Sirius, who had found Marlene and Amelia during Lily's conversation overheard the whole conversation, quickly grabbed the two girls and scurried after to Lily almost as soon as she left the establishment.

"Lily. Lily!" James shouted at her walking back to the castle.

"What Potter! Unless you have something constructive to say, don't say anything at all! I don't want to hear it!"

"I'm sorry for what happened back there. Snivellus is a right foul git, and he doesn't know what he's missing out on."

Sirius piped in, "I never knew what you saw in him anyways."

Lily stormed around, "He was my best friend Black! For five years he was my sounding board, and now I don't even have that! Imagine what it would be like if Potter here never spoke to you again! And that is what I feel like right now!"

"I'm sorry," he replied, and Lily ran back to the castle in tears. "Prongs mate, I think you need to do something to cheer her up."

"I'm thinking Padfoot, and I may have an idea." And the two of them left Lily with the other girls and hurried back to the castle discussing possible ways to cheer Lily up.

Lily didn't show up to dinner that evening, and from what James found out from Marlene is that she buried herself in her bed and locked the curtains together with her cat, Tigger. So after dinner James went down to the kitchens and asked one of the house elves to bring her a plate of food up to her room, and to be sure to include a chicken pot pie (one of her favorites that he had found out this year), a bar of Honeydukes chocolate, and a can of tuna for her cat, and he was sure to pay 5 sickels so the house elves could go get the Honeydukes and tuna.  
After all the students went to bed, James was sitting up in his room, glancing at the Marauder's map and finishing one of his Charms essays when he finally saw Lily creep down to the common room. He hurriedly packed up is essay and book and rushed down the stairs.

Lily was just getting to the bottom of the stairs as James reached the bottom and she was carrying Tigger and was in her cotton night shirt with pants, a robe, and Winnie-the-Pooh slippers on. She saw James and asked,

"What are you doing up so late?"

"Oh, working on my Charms essay, and Sirius was snoring too loud up in the dorm room so I decided to take refuge down here in the common room."

"Ah" she said as she was rubbing your eyes.

"We missed you at dinner. Did you take a nap and now just waking up?"

"No, I was up in my room, but a house-elf showed up just after dinner with a pot pie and honeydukes with some tuna for Tigger. I wonder where they got the money for the chocolate?" She said, eyeing James.  
James shrunk back and sheeply looked at Lily, "I confess. I gave them the money, and the idea about the tuna. I just thought you shouldn't miss your dinner."

"Well that was very thoughtful. Now Tigger wont eat his normal food anymore, since he was spoiled with tuna tonight." James chuckled and shrugged.

"I mush have an innate sense to knowing what cats are fond of. How exactly did you come up with the name Tigger anyways?"

"Well, do you know the story of Winnie-the-Pooh?"

"Winnie-the-What?"

"Winnie-the-Pooh. I can't believe you haven't heard of Winnie-the-Pooh. By A.A. Milne? It's a popular children's story."

"I've heard about the Hopping Pot, Babbity Rabbity, and the Tale of the Three Brothers, but nothing about a poo?"

"Well why don't we sit down and you can tell be about your rabbit, and I will tell you about Winnie-the-Pooh."  
James smiled and put down his charms homework on the table and went to sit on the couch in front of the fire. He took one of the extra pillows sitting there, and transfigured it into a blanket big enough for the pair of them to sit and be cozy, with Lily sitting on one side of the couch, and James on the other.

"Well why don't I start," said Lily as she cuddled up with Tigger on her lap. James nodded at her to continue.

"So, A.A. Milne had a son named Christopher Robin Milne, shorted in the stories to Christopher Robin. He has a stuffed teddy bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. A.A. Milne wrote short stories about Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh's many adventures. Winnie-the-Pooh had numerous pals in his stories. He had a donkey named Eeyore, a tiny pig named Piglet, and a tiger that bounced on his tail named Tigger. Tigger is orange with black stripes, which is why I named my cat Tigger. They both have much of the same colorings." She sat petting her cat.

"So," James piped in, "If your cat kinda looks like Tigger, what does Winnie-the-Pooh look like? I'm assuming the guy named Piglet is just a small pig."

"Yup. Piglet is just a small pig, and very adorable, and I currently have my Winnie-the-Pooh slippers on." She wrestled one of her legs out from underneath the blanket and shoved her foot up in the air next to James' face, so he could get a closer view of Winnie-the-Pooh.

He glanced at the slipper, and then grabbed her ankle and took the slipper off. Tigger had the correct idea to jump onto the back of the couch.

"Hey! What are you doing! You're going to make my feet cold!"

"I wanted to get a better look at Winnie." James then took her ankle and slid it back under the blanket, rummaged around under the blanket for the other slipper and stole that one as well.

Lily glared back at him turned on the couch and stuck her feet up on the couch underneath James and the blanket so she could try and regain the warmth lost by the slippers.

As James was staring intently at the slippers, he was internally smiling to himself now that Lily was touching him, even though it was only with her feet.

"Huh, how about that. He actually looks like a bear. I was thinking he was going to be big and brown and smelled funny. Come to think of it," he took a sniff, "these slippers do kinda smell funny. They should probably be thrown away." He made a gesture like he was going to throw them in the fire.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Lily reached for her slippers, but James kept them out of her reach. "I've had those for almost 5 years. My mom got them for me for my 13th birthday after I was complaining so much that walking around the common room was really cold in the evening, and I didn't want to put my regular shoes back on." Lily was almost at the point where she was crawling on James to get her slippers back. Need-less to say, James was enjoying this game almost too much.

After finally letting Lily have her slippers back James said, "well do you want to hear about Babbity Rabbity?" Lily nodded her head, and went back to her spot on the couch.

"So the story is one of the Tales of Beadle the Bard and its called Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump." James continued on with the story about how Babbitty transformed into a rabbit and hid inside a tree trunk while still taunting everyone else in thinking she was a ghost.  
Once James was finished with the story, Lily exclaimed, "Was that a real story? Or is just a fable like most other children's tales?"

"Many believe it is one of the most truest tales that Beadle told in his stories, but its probably just because its the most believable."

"Wow. Interesting. Babbitty was an animagi wasn't she? I know animal transformations are difficult to do, and I know McGonagall is a cat because she transformed herself in 5th year for us. It was bloody brilliant. I wonder how long it takes to master it? How is it performed?"

"Well, from what I know of it, is that it's difficult to master. Its a combination of a Self-Transfiguration and Self-Charm, and there has to be a balance between the two that the performer has to get right, or things can go terribly wrong. I've asked McGonagall about it before. It's all about keeping your mind when you're transforming, or so I've read," James said trying to catch himself from slipping or hinting at the truth.

"I wonder how many animagi there are in the world?"

"Well in the 20th century alone, there were only 7 registered animagi."

"Registered animagi, so that means there's more out there that are unregistered?"

"Sure, I guess they want people registered because the magic is so difficult that they want to keep tabs on them when they try to perform the magic."

"Crazy. But you have to admit it would be pretty cool to roam around as an animal all the time."

"Yea, Crazy." James said, wanting to get off the subject. "Hey Lily, I think we should probably get some shut eye now. I hope you can fall asleep now that you've had your bedtime story."

"Thanks James. We should do this again. I'm assuming there are other stories of Beadle's that you can tell me when I'm feeling restless, and thanks for th blanket. Your transfiguration was very good, and the blanket was extra soft."

"Yea Lily, anytime." James chuckled as he got up, and helped Lily to her Winnie-the-Pooh clad feet and hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. She smiled up to him with a slightly mischievous look, which gave James a pause, and headed for the stairwell. He retransformed the blanket back into a pillow, and headed up the staircase to the boys dorm while Lily went up to the girls wondering what she really was thinking about, and if he slipped too much information about animagi.

The next evening at the Halloween Feast James was on edge the entire day, and huddled with the Marauders to make sure the Halloween Feast was up to par with their usual pranks.

When everyone finally entered in the great hall for dinner that night they were met with a menagerie of flying bats, giant spiders, jack-o-lanterns and towers of sugary confections that littered the tables.

Lily, Marlene and Amelia all sat down close to the Marauders and the other older Gryffindors to start in on their feast. Lily did note that the dirt pots looked extremely real, and the gummy worms had been charmed to actually move throughout the dirt pile. The plants that were in the pots had chocolate covered cockroaches sitting on top of the leaves and were also charmed to move about the leaves and branches. Lily snapped off one of the branches and it tasted like a hardened cinnamon-sugar stick, and the leaves were made out of shaped sugar cookies. There were jack-o-lanterns on the tables and each wore a different expression and some had toothy grins while others sported a fierce scowl.

Marlene pointed out one pumpkin that looked like Dumbledore's face with his trademarked half-moon glasses, while another looked like the potion master.

Dumbledore stood up in the front of the room and raised his hands for all the students to be quiet.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome! I hope you all enjoy this specially prepared meal by our house-elves with help and assistance from our Head Boy, James Potter" He gestured to where James was sitting. "I hope you all tuck yourselves in to this special treat and begin!"  
The dinner items suddenly appeared spaced between all of the confections, and there was pumpkin pie, turkey with stuffing, mash potatoes and gravy, chicken dumplings, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce and biscuits, with even more assorted goodies scattered about all over the tables. Each place setting had a festive mini orange pumpkin sitting with their house crest carved onto them, and the whole school dug in.

About halfway through the meal when most of the students had started on dessert was when the Marauders all made silent glances at each other and James got out his wand and pointed at his own mini pumpkin and performed a non-verbal spell. Seconds later all of the pumpkins started spewing smoke of their house colors and the great hall was instantly filled with green, blue, yellow and red smoke. Once the smoke reached the pumpkins hanging in the ceiling, the pumpkins started to explode into tiny pieces. Once the pieces hit the tables Lily picked one up and tasted it, and they were Smarties!

The smoke kept rising and as it reached the spiders, the spiders started flying around the great hall and a whistling noise was being emitted, and the Monster Mash started chorusing throughout the whole hall. Lily then urged Marlene, Amelia, and everyone around her to get up and dance as the song continued on its theme.

Finally the smoke reached the bats up in the ceiling and the bats exploded into fireworks just as the last strains of the Monster Mash was fading away. The spiders finally gave up and joined the bats in an explosive and colorful display. There were sparks flying everywhere, and there was more candy drifting down to the tables, and finally the pumpkins on the table oozed out their last puffs of smoke, which now resembled deflated orange blobs of color, and finally exploded into puffs of glitter and sequins that reigned down on everyone in the Great Hall.

As soon as everything settled in its place a roar of thunderous applause came from the room, and Sirius nudged James, and said, "I think this was the best one mate." In return James replied, "I think it was."

Thanks again for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed my Halloween Feast. Again as I said before, you can just read the story for the fun of it. I'm not asking for critiques. It is how I envisioned James and Lily getting together. ~Geogmuse


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